Never Forget Who We Are
by Cricket Slip
Summary: The Lone Wanderer (Fallout 3 protagonist) finds herself in the Mojave after walking much too far. She takes up a job as a courier in order to feel less important but can't seem to keep herself out of trouble.
1. Chapter 1

**Title**: Never Forget Who We Are  
**Pairings**: Charon/F!LW; perhaps more in the future  
**Summary**: The Lone Wanderer finds herself in the Mojave after walking much too far. She takes up a job as a courier in order to feel less important but can't seem to keep herself out of trouble. This will have many parts. How many, I cannot say.  
**Notes**: We have to get through some stuff before we can get to the stuff. Perhaps grab a glass, this'll be a long one. And don't worry, it won't be just me retelling the New Vegas story. There'll be lots more than that, with the New Vegas story acting as a timeline.

I posted this on the kink meme first, but then figured I might as well repost it here, too!

* * *

She was in agony. She was engulfed by dark clouds so thick she couldn't see, couldn't feel. She couldn't even breathe during the worst of it. If she drifted under, let herself stop feeling, the clouds didn't hurt her. It was when she felt herself being yanked through them that she felt the most pain. Slowly, her eyes opened and she took one last tumble through the clouds. "You're awake. How 'bout that?"

She flinched. An unfamiliar voice. When her eyes finally focused, she squinted, stared. An unfamiliar face. As she tried to get up, she heard him continuing to speak but she couldn't understand his words. Finally, she heard him say, "How about your name? Can you tell me your name?"

And then she realised she had nothing. Nothing she could hold onto. "Cathy," she finally said, with no idea where that name had come from. Maybe it was hers, maybe it meant something, maybe it was just a name she'd heard once before. Either way, it didn't matter. She could pretend she could feel it.

And so it went on. She was Cathy, and since she couldn't remember one damn thing about herself, she began answering all of Doc Mitchell's questions the way she thought that Cathy would. Not that that meant anything, but it made her feel like she wasn't pulling all her answers out of her ass.

She was released in a Vault 21 jumpsuit that felt way too familiar and curiosity about the device on her wrist which seemed to have Doc Mitchell equally confused.

After deciding not to dwell on it, and after speaking with the robot who had dug her out of her shallow grave, she made her way to the saloon to talk to Sunny Smiles like she was instructed.

But before she could speak to Sunny, a leather armour clad ghoul made his way over to her, much to Sunny's shock, and made an expression that could almost be described as a smile. "You return," he said. "Shall I join you once again?"

And Cathy frowned deeply. "Have we _met_?" she asked, genuinely confused.

"That's not funny," the ghoul said, staring at her with slight worry. "You are my employer, in case you forgot."

"Employer." She repeated the word carefully. "Like boss?"

"Yes." And there was no amusement in his voice to be heard but he was sure she was trying to be funny.

"And you... what? Use that pretty gun of yours?"

"When the situation arises."

She nodded slowly. "You seem to know me. So tell me. Do I have a gun, too? Can I shoot?"

"You're far from the best I've seen, but you aren't bad with a laser pistol."


	2. Chapter 2

They walked to Primm together in silence, their only words the occasional jeers as Charon hunted down the odd gecko.

Cathy played idly with her laser pistol, occasionally trying to shoot at the geckos herself and missing more than she'd have liked. 'Maybe that's why I have Charon,' she thought. 'Or maybe a bullet to the head is bad for my aim.'

"I hope I can figure this shooting thing out," she said idly as Charon returned to her side once again. Okay, _side_wasn't the most accurate word she could have used as he preferred to walk a good five or so steps behind her, letting her lead.

"Just work on holding your arm steady. You picked it up once," Charon said from behind her.

She smiled and nodded. "All right. I'll do that, then. Thank you."

He just grunted. Cathy took that as a you're welcome.

By the time nightfall came, Cathy had trekked them halfway around the Mojave. Or at least that's how Charon felt at the time. After stopping at Primm, then what remained of Nipton, Cathy managed to make it all the way to Ranger Station Charlie before deciding to stop. The NCR soldiers there had been kind enough to let her sleep in one of the currently unoccupied beds.

Charon was no stranger to walking, even before he met the kid for the first time, and she wasn't either, but a day in the heat with very little rest will take its toll on anyone. He sat down in a small chair while she slept, content to simply rest his legs for the time.

The kid was up before the sun, eager and looking rested. She grabbed her laser pistol again and shot Charon a grin he thought he'd never see again. "We goin'? Come on! Novac can't be far now! Let's go!"

"And I shall follow," he said, nodding and smiling to himself. The kid was looking more and more like her old self. He wondered if she'd ever remember him and hoped that on some subconscious level she still did.


	3. Chapter 3

The sun was high in the sky when they finally left Novac, a day later than they'd hoped. The kid had decided at some point that helping every sorry bastard they saw would be a good idea. Charon didn't understand where that had come from. She'd hardly been bad before, but she used to be colder, less caring. But instead, she'd been drawn into an event involving a long-gone wife and a pointless desire for revenge.

And now they had some sort of military man along, and Charon never was fond of military men. Especially not military men with hard looks in their eyes and regret on their shoulders.

But the kid was in charge and he guessed that if the sniper tried anything, she wouldn't mind if he put the bastard down then.

And it turned out he was rather useful in a fight, as he found when they were ambushed by Powder Gangers not forty yards away from the town.

"Real tight security you got in your town, Boone," the kid said, frowning as she vaporised one of the men.

"I _was_ the security," he growled back, causing her to laugh wildly.

"Woah, now?" she asked, wide-eyed. "And it's okay for you to leave?"

He nodded. "Manny's got a handle on things. Then we got Ranger Andy and a few mercs."

"You trust Manny?"

"With my life."

"Well, now I feel sorta bad for breaking into his motel room and hacking his computer."

"Don't bother."

And so they travelled on, the kid in the lead, Charon keeping close to her, and Boone bringing up the rear.


	4. Chapter 4

Her head was burning. She could feel it there, in the back of her mind, like fire. The fire was inside of her, within every nerve in her body, stemming from her brain. Why was there so much pain?

It was her own sobbing that woke Cathy up. Her head felt fine. It was that nightmare again, the one she'd had ever since the first night after waking up in Goodsprings. And it had been a long few since Goodsprings.

Both Boone and Charon looked at her, concern in their eyes. They'd been having a silent competition to see who could keep watch longer or some typical macho bullshit. Cathy didn't care.

She stood up on shaky legs and stumbled over to Boone, who caught her before she tumbled to the ground and she turned to hide her face in his shirt as she cried. "Who am I and why does everything hurt?" she asked him.

He froze, his mind racing to find some way to react. What was she doing? All right, that wasn't a bad question to ask. "What... are you doing?" he asked her.

"No... I'm sorry, Boone," she said quietly.

He frowned. That wasn't right, was it? She needed comforting. "I don't know who you are. We only met a few days ago," he said, trying again.

She nodded slowly. "Of course... just a few days. And just a little while before that, that's when I was born," she said.

"Born?" he asked, confused.

"Yes. I was born just a few days ago. I don't know... a bullet to the head made me forget who I was, you see. So since I don't know who was before me, I'm Cathy now... Charon doesn't know either. He should. But he said I never told him my name. Now you don't need a life story here, but I figured that since we were to be travelling together... I want you to know how it is."

He just grunted, unsure of how to respond. She smiled in response, as if he'd provided her with a legitimate answer. "Good. Can I get words next time?"

He grunted again, and she wasn't sure why she felt almost used to that as a response. It didn't matter why. Something about the near-silence outside of battle made her feel comfortable and that was more than enough for her.


	5. Chapter 5

By the time they made it into Freeside, Cathy, Boone, and Charon were all tired enough for a nice, long rest. Of course, Cathy was the only one who voiced that, but she could tell her companions were keeping back heavy breathing and signs of fatigue.

She wouldn't tell.

As she half-stumbled into the Atomic Wrangler, she got an amused but non-judgmental look from the man she rented a room from and only after collapsing on the bed did she realise why that might be.

And then she shrugged it off. This wasn't the kind of place most people stayed at just for sleep, after all.

And somewhere in the back of her mind, she wondered what sort of person she was, if it took her so long to make that connection.

Or maybe she was just too tired to. It felt odd, not knowing herself, not understanding what sort of person she is.

Or maybe that was just her tired mind not working as well as it could.

Hell, either way.

"Charon?" she finally asked, looking over at the man, who had seated himself on the floor.

"Hm?" the ghoul responded.

"What kind of person am I? You travelled with me for so long..."

"Well, kid, you were... you are a good person. You did not always do the right thing, but you did it for the right reasons."

She smiled at that. "What else?"

"You were not the best in a fight. And you were clever. And you... loved your father."

"My father?"

He just shrugged, deciding to leave it at that. It wasn't his place, he felt, to talk about her father, about the reason she walked so far and for so long in any direction that seemed like it would take her far enough away. That, and he was never very good at talking, and he felt he'd done enough of it.

Boone, who had been listening curiously, looked over at her, then, just in time to see a tear slide down her face.

"Are you crying?" the sniper asked her.

"No," she said, and then wiped her eye. "Oh. Yes I am. That's odd."

"Are you all right?"

She nodded. "I can't think of a reason for me to cry," she said simply.

_I can,_ Charon thought, but kept quiet.


End file.
